Dasavatharam: India's most ambitious film to date

It is India's most ambitious film to date, both budget and scriptwise. Going by the worldwide box office collections so far, it may well give enough reasons to its investor to smile all the way to the bank.

If you have spent time in Tamil Nadu, it's a ritual you are certain to have seen at some point. The release of a film by any of the state's big stars is an event to be seen. And if the film stars one of the icons like Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan, the bursting of crackers and the coconut breaking could well make an outsider think it is the prelude to a grand wedding. Often, the only difference is that this wedding lasts through the first week of a film's release and in some instances, a bit longer.

The release of Haasan's magnum opus Dasavatharam was probably the most awaited event in a long time. For Haasan's fans, they needed something to talk about after Rajinikanth's Sivaji - The Boss created an unprecedented level of hysteria. That film was released on July 15 last year and Haasan's Dasavatharam was in the theatres on June 13 this year.

It is often hard to gauge the success of a film when the hype is so overwhelming and Dasavatharam merely confirms that hypotheses. Most importantly, this was Haasan's first release since Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu in August 2006 which went on to become a huge hit.

Kamal's Kamaal

Ask Dasavatharam's producer Venu Ravichandran if he was worried about how expensive this project could be and the answer is an emphatic NO. "Well, it came to Rs 60 crore eventually but I never ever had an estimate," he says. Hard to believe? Not really, if he tells you that this is how he went about producing Anniyan which was released in 2006. That had a budget of around Rs 50 crore and grossed twice that number at the box office.

In Ravichandran's words, he had decided on the project as far back as in 1996. It took a lot of time to get the film together. "It's not a usual, run of the mill film. For instance, we were into post-production a year after the film's shooting was completed," he says.

Given that Haasan plays such varied roles as a Telugu speaking RAW official or a witty grandmother apart from a George Bush who wants to know what NaCl (sodium chloride) stands for, this has clearly been his biggest effort. Ten roles in one film required the actor to get into various forms of make-up and ready himself to play a different personality all the time. "We took two years to finish the project.

Without Kamal Haasan, it would have taken ten years," says Ravichandran quite candidly. He says it took the actor eight hours of make-up time to get ready for each of the ten avtaars. "All this was for just shooting spread out over half hour. The make-up would not last beyond that," exclaims the producer. Interestingly, the film was scheduled for release last October which then got pushed to December. "We wanted to release it on April 14 (Tamil New Year's day)," says Ravichandran.

It was imperative for the audience to get the best of Haasan and the ten roles were meant to drive home that point. Marketers think it is a good idea. "It gives the actor ten opportunities to click with the audience," opines Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults. Arguably, that is the film's selling point and that is what the actor and the producer seem to be banking on.

"I was completely confident about the project. Where else could the audience have seen the actor in such diverse roles," says Ravichandran, who himself is a huge fan of Haasan having seen a lot of films of his. He is effusive about the actor and is clear when he says that it was his indefatigable attitude that saw the project through. "Never once did the actor ask for a break or say he was too tired," recalls Ravichandran. Music indeed to the ears of the audience.

Not at the altar of Commerce

In the recent past, most big-budget films have adopted a revenue model where the investments are typically recovered before the release of the film. That has been with the case of most of the films in Bollywood and for recent Tamil films like Sivaji - The Boss.

Dasavatharam has been rather different in the sense that the producer decided to distribute the film himself. Ravichandran has been one of the biggest names in distribution though it is fair to assume that on a budget as large as this, it would just make business sense to recover as much as possible quickly.

He disagrees with this theory and says that he is able to give the project his best when he distributes the film himself. "I have distributed the film on my own in India and across the world as well," he says. Hassan's last release Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu was distributed by Ravichandran. In 2006, he distributed almost all the blockbusters in Tamil cinema.

In terms of money that came Ravichandran's way before the release of the film, it was Rs 2 crore from Sony-BMG for selling the music rights and another Rs 4.5 crore for Kalaignar TV for the satellite rights. That adds up to just Rs 6.5 crore. If Ravichandran, over the years, has earned the reputation of being a risk taker, this pretty much confirms it.

"To me, taking risks is like eating a rusk," he says with a tinge of the characteristic Tamil humour. To get deeper into the numbers, the film overall will have 1,300 prints which will include the Hindi version as well. Tamil Nadu alone had 275 prints with Kerala and Karnataka accounting for 85 and 80 prints respectively.

The Telugu version of Dasavatharam had as many as 260 prints. "We will have 190 prints for the overseas markets and there will be another 400 for the Hindi audiences," says Ravichandran. Simply put, around 1,100 prints will be released domestically while the rest will go abroad. By comparison, Sivaji - The Boss had 155 prints for the overseas territories just confirming how important the Tamil diaspora is in countries like UK, US, Europe and Singapore.

If the game is all about the number of prints, then producers have to ensure that the film can be viewed in as many screens as possible. Again, promoting a film like Dasavatharam is not always easy. "It becomes very difficult to market it since the benchmarks set are very high. It is also easy because it has a big star," thinks Bijoor.

Interestingly, the multitude of prints has translated into an impressive collections as well. The producer says that a state like Kerala grossed Rs 2 crore in the first week. "To date, the film has generated revenues worth Rs 100 crore and it has the potential to bring in as much as $100 million (over Rs 400 crore)," he claims.

Multiplex owners have been quite thrilled with the response. According to K. Munikannaiah, Vice President (Movie Scheduling) at Chennai's Satyam Cinema, his multiplex had 70 shows during the first week grossing over Rs 50 lakh. "During the second week, we had sixty shows bringing in another Rs 45 lakh. I must say Dasavatharam's performance has exceeded our expectations," he adds.

Ravichandran has lived and breathed Dasavatharam over the last few years. "I watched Kamal Haasan films as a youngster in movie theatres and did not expect to produce his film ever. It is a dream come true for me," he says. It's not as if he is all set to cool his heels. The next project is with Jackie Chan which, according to him, has a budget of Rs 600 crore.

"We will start shooting the film early next year and will release it in December 2008," is all the producer is willing to reveal. For now, he can barely take his mind off Dasavatharam. "I have seen the film over a 100 times," he says with a laugh. Deep down, Ravichandran must be hoping the audience follows suit.